The mother of an unarmed black man shot dead in Southern California this week said on Thursday her son was having a mental breakdown when he was confronted by police and they should have helped him instead of quickly opening fire.
The mother of an unarmed black man shot dead in Southern California this week said on Thursday her son was having a mental breakdown when he was confronted by police and they should have helped him instead of quickly opening fire.
Within two minutes of police officers arriving, they had shot Alfred Olango, 38, after he pointed an object at them that turned out to be an electronic cigarette, authorities said.
The shooting in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon has sparked protests and calls from activists for a federal investigation.
About 75 protesters gathered late on Thursday near the scene of the shooting and threw rocks and bottles, stopped vehicles and broke car windows. They also knocked a motorcyclist off his bike and assaulted him, the El Cajon Police Department said.
Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and arrested two men for unlawful assembly, the police statement said.
It was the latest in a string of shootings of mostly unarmed black men by police officers in the United States that have led to sometimes violent protests.
"Mental breakdown is not easy to confront. He needed someone who could ... calm him down and then take care of the situation. That's all the (911) call was called for, not to come and just finish his life," Olango's mother, Pamela Benge, said through tears at a news conference in San Diego.
Olango was distraught because his best friend had recently died, she said.
Attorneys for Olango's family criticized authorities for releasing the image of Olango pointing the object at an officer, saying it gave an unfair impression of the former Ugandan refugee, and called for the public release of the full video taken by a bystander.
"The image was released by El Cajon PD to stop some of the inaccurate narratives forming about the incident, such as the subject of the shooting had his shirt off and his hands up when he was shot," Tanya Sierra, a spokeswoman for the district attorney (DA), said in an email.
At the earliest, the full video of the incident would not be released until after the DA's review, authorities said.
El Cajon officer Richard Gonsalves and a colleague on the police force, whose name was not released, were responding to emergency calls about a "mentally unstable" man walking in traffic, officials said.
Police have said the two officers encountered him at a strip mall and Gonsalves opened fire within two minutes of arriving at the scene. Attorneys for Olango's family said it was closer to a minute.
Dan Gilleon, an attorney for Olango's family, has accused the officers of escalating the situation. He said in a phone interview they should have taken cover and talked to Olango from a distance to defuse any tension.
"We all go through bad days. I don't know that someone of my skin color would end up dead because they're having a bad day," Gilleon, who is white, said at the news conference.
Police have said Olango ignored commands to take his hand out of his pocket before pulling out an object later determined to be a vaping device used to inhale nicotine. Olango assumed a "shooting stance" and pointed the object, which had a 3-inch-long (8-cm) cylinder, police said. No gun was found.
Gonsalves opened fire and the other officer discharged a Taser device, police said. Police have not said how many shots were fired. A family spokesman said Olango was shot five times.
The officers have been placed on administrative leave as El Cajon police and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office investigate.
Gilleon also cited Gonsalves's history. He was accused of sexual harassment by fellow officer Christine Greer in 2015, according to court records, over allegations that he sent her a text message photograph of his penis.
Gilleon is also representing Greer in a lawsuit filed in August accusing Gonsalves and El Cajon officials of retaliation against her.
An attorney for Gonsalves in the civil litigation did not return calls.
Olango had recently moved back home from Arizona to be closer to his teenage daughter and was living with family and working at a furniture company, Gilleon said.
Thursday's news conference was attended by several of Olango's family members, including his teenage daughter who cried through most of it.
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